A new Transboundary Water Cooperation Coalition to foster peace and sustainable development

While water stress is on the rise, only 24 of 153 countries that share transboundary river, lake or aquifer basins have all their transboundary basins covered by operational arrangements.

The new Transboundary Water Cooperation Coalition aims to strengthen transboundary water governance at bilateral, transboundary, regional, and global levels. This initiative will foster cooperation between countries that share aquifers, to ensure an equitable and efficient usage of these shared water resources in the interests of peaceful co-existence and sustainable development.

“More than 3 billion people depend on water that crosses national borders,” said Olga Algayerova, Executive Secretary of UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) at the coalition’s launch during the UN-Water Summit on Groundwater in Paris, France, in December 2022.  “This makes transboundary water cooperation a crucial foundation for peace, sustainable development and climate action.”

The Coalition will encourage countries and organizations from around the world to submit concrete commitments to advance transboundary water cooperation as contributions to the Water Action Agenda, a main outcome of the UN 2023 Water Conference, 22-24 March 2023. 

For more details on the work of the Transboundary Water Cooperation Coalition, click here.